There’s a crack in the mirror By the hotel sink I keep meaning to fix it But I like how it thinks Makes me look less holy Less easy to sell Like a saint with a backstage pass Half heaven, half hell I wore velvet to dinner With my combat boots Watched politicians laughing Like they still know the truth And the boys with guitars And the girls with sharp eyes Everybody pretending Nobody dies Oh but I Got tired of performing For strangers in expensive shoes And I Stopped trying to be beautiful For people glued to the news So here I am Simply No cathedral lights No symphony No silver screen salvation No manufactured grace Just a woman with a violin And tired fire in her face Simply This is all I know How to bleed into the music And call it home There’s a waitress in Brooklyn Who reads Sartre at work Says America’s a casino For the violently hurt And I laughed like I meant it While stirring my drink Sometimes truth arrives quietly Before you can think I still dream in old castles Candles under stone Like I died in another century And woke up alone But the stage always finds me Like a curse or a kiss Every crowd looking upward For whatever they missed And I Still lower my eyes When somebody says I shine 'Cause compliments feel dangerous When you survived by design So here I am Simply No orchestra tonight No poetry No carefully rehearsed illusion No queen upon a throne Just a girl with northern blood Trying not to turn to stone Simply Nothing left to hide If the world wants something honest Let it look me in the eyes Maybe beauty is just exhaustion With better lighting Maybe freedom’s only real When nobody’s clapping Maybe love survives somewhere Outside all this noise Past the cameras Past the contracts Past the frightened little boys So here I am Simply No revolution now No victory Just scars beneath the sequins And smoke inside my lungs Still chasing something sacred In these half-forgotten songs Simply If you stay, then stay true I’ve spent my whole life learning How to disappear in view
